æternity is a new blockchain - designed for fast and secure smart contracts interfacing with real-world data via a decentralized oracle.

Scalability is achieved by using (trustless) Turing-complete state channels, a major difference to Ethereum. This way the smart contracts also become easier to analyze and more secure.

The interface to real-world data is done via an innovative oracle design, which is based on prediction markets.

State channels increase scalability since all transactions become independent and can thus be processed in parallel. Additionally, this means that contracts never write to shared state, greatly simplifying their testing and verification.

æternity will be powered by the æternity token (AE symbol, also 'æon').

æternity tokens are used as payment for any resources one consumes on the platform, as well as the basis for applications implemented on the platform.The distribution of æternity token [AE] in the genesis block will be determined by a smart contract hosted on Ethereum.

æternity tokens will be managed by accounts which will have an address and balance, implemented alongside a alias (naming) system which will support human-friendly names mapped to an aeternity address.

æternity identities are essentially a triple of (pubkey, hash, name). Pubkey from the account, name from the alias and hash linking to further data, e.g. on IPFS.

The variables that define the protocol are all constantly being updated by the consensus/governance. From their initial default values, we can calculate the initial default rate of transactions per second.

æternity’s blockchain leverages state channels which makes smart contracts faster, more secure and more private.

First, two users open up a state channel via depositing some AE tokens into it.

They can agree to arbitrary smart contracts. This allows for transactions to be conducted as fast as information can betransmitted and processed by the parties, instead of them having to wait until the transaction has been validated—and potentially finalized— by the blockchain’s consensus mechanism.

This æternity blockchain is used to settle the final outcome or to resolve conflicts that arise.

It’s decisions are foreseeable, thereby ruling out malicious activity between parties who try to erode the state channels to which they’ve written and previously agreed to.

The transfer of æon is the only effect channels can have on the blockchain, only those æon that have been deposited into the state channel can be transferred. This makes all channels independent from each other, which has the immediate benefit that any transactions related to channels can be processed in parallel, greatly improving transaction throughput.

SMART CONTRACTS

æternity uses a Turing-complete (new) virtual machine with MAST (Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees) to process smart contracts. Within æternity, smart contracts are pure functions in the form of financial agreements that distribute funds according to predetermined rules. MAST enables that, in case a smart contract needs to be enforced by the blockchain, only the relevant part of the smart contract needs to be published, achieving again higher scalability and confidentiality.

Only the involved parties know about the contract

Only parties that have an open state channel can create a valid contract

Every state change or code update gets signed by both counterparties of the contract

It is only submitted to the blockchain if its outcome is disputed, in which case the code is only ever stored as part of the submitted transaction, never in any other state.

If this happens, the blockchain distributes the tokens according to the contract and closes the channel.

IMPLEMENTATION

æternity core blockchain code is written in Erlang, which makes it easy to write distributed, fault-tolerant, soft real-time, highly available, non-stop applications. Erlang is the perfect language to write a blockchain from scratch and by using it, we achieve a superior operational stability and performance.

WEB AND MOBILE INTEGRATION

æternity is 'mobile first', which is true because of the convergence of mobile and web technologies and new mining algo which is even efficiently minable on smart phones.

A Javascript library and REST APIs for engaging with the core blockchain will make the integration into existing web/mobile appsor services easier.

ReactJS will be the framework of choice two write reusable modules in, for the UI. These modules can easily be reused on the web, as well as on mobile, and even compile down to native apps on mobile, becoming more snappy.

We are pleased to announce the details on how to contribute to the development of æternity blockchain! In the process of the contribution AE token will be created and distributed to the contributors.

In order to achieve highest possible security, transparency and simplicity. æternity uses simple smart contracts (multi-signature escrow contracts) on Ethereum in order to collect the ETH contributions and handle them.

TRANSPARENCY WINS

Another goal of this campaign is to get the global community involved as soon as possible, to foster growth of the æternity ecosystem. We want to be as decentralized as possible and don’t want to exclude anybody who believes in the technological proposition of æternity blockchain and wants to support the development. We believe that this is essential for long-term growth.

As a result the contribution campaign will be split into two phases.

Phase 1 — Public “friends, family and real innovator” round

Starting on April 3rd, 13:05 GMT and lasting for 3 days [72 hours] until April 6th, 13:05 GMT. During this period, 1 ETH contribution will receive 1000 AE tokens. Anyone can participate!

Launch bonus for phase two: 50 (fifty) AE bonus per 1 ETH sent in the first 24h!

Direct contributions are possible with ETH. For contributions with BTC or fiat, please get in touch with our partner Bitcoin Suisse. For contributions via other cryptocurrencies we suggest to use ShapeShift to fund the æternity contribution wallet.

All contributions happen in a publicly transparent and tamper-proof way (‘public receipt’) on the Ethereum blockchain. After the contribution campaign, the AE token will be created based on the public receipts. 82% of the initial æternity AE tokens will be distributed to the contributors. 1% will be allocated to people who hold BTC or ETH, accessible when the æternity blockchain launches. Time-locked via a multi-sig escrow contract, 17% will get allocated to Aeternity Anstalt, the foundation and the founding team.

As for security, please, do NOT send from an exchange account to the æternity contribution account! Use the æternity wallet, which is optimized to make the contribution process as easy as possible. Alternatively, you can use your ETH wallet, just make sure that you are the only one who has access to your private key. The escrow services will be announced shortly.

Æternity meets Ledger Nano S

The first 1000 contributors above 12 ETH will receive 1 limited edition æternity branded Ledger Nano S wallet. Shipping costs might be additional. Note, that this perk is limited to one wallet per contributor and one per physical address.

SIMPLICITY IS KEYHOW TO CONTRIBUTE?

1. Starting on April 3rd and ending on April 6th, go to aeternity.com and press the contribute button on the first page.2. Fund the wallet with Ether (ETH) (or view alternatives for contributions with other currencies, such as bitcoin or fiat).3. Accept the Terms and Conditions.4. Contribute! And view your AE contribution on the Ethereum blockchain. If you like: Write a 160 character message, which will be embedded into the Æternity genesis block and last forever.

IN MORE DETAILFIRST CONTRIBUTION PHASE — THE BEGINNINGFOR FRIENDS OF ÆTERNITY AND REAL INNOVATORS

- Start date: [Monday, 3rd of April 2017]- Start time: [13:05 GMT]- Duration: 3 days, exact 72h, by blocktime.- All will be recorded on the ETH blockchain by a multisig-escrow-contract.- Ratio: 1 ETH contribution yields 1,000 (thousand) AE contribution receipts- A special æternity wallet will be launched.- After these 3 days, the first phase of contribution acceptance is over.- All following transactions will be 10% donated to non-blockchain open-source projects and 90% sent back to the sender, per transaction. No receipts are given for transactions which are included in a block before or after the official start and end.

INCUBATION PHASE

- There will be a maximum of 90 days in between phase 1 and phase 2.- Much will happen during this time. E.g. hackathons, meetups and at least one conference will be organized, bringing together the community in every continent of the world to hack on æternity. The best teams and projects will be supported by the Æternity Open Source Foundation, which is in formation process.

SECOND CONTRIBUTION PHASE — EVOLUTIONFOR VERY EARLY ADOPTER

•Start time: will be announced, latest in 90 days after the conclusion of phase 1•Duration: will be announced.•Ratio: 1 ETH contribution yields 800 (eight hundred) AE contribution receipts (or less)•Additional perks for the first contributors: will be announced.•All will be recorded on the ETH blockchain by a multisig-escrow-contract (like in phase 1)

- After both contribution campaigns end, an AE token smart contract will be created on Ethereum, which will mirror the contributions in a verifiable way. Mirror, as in copy the contributions and AE token ownership over to the new blockchain. Open-source tools to check and verify the contribution transfers will be provided.- After successful migration, the launch of the transferable AE token will take place and become official. One single smart contract will keep track of the AE contributions on Ethereum until æternity mainnet launches.

CONTRIBUTION DISRUPTION — THE BIRTH OF THE AE TOKEN

- After phase 1 and 2 have concluded and after the successful security audit, the AE tokens become freely usable (transferable), not only good for beta-testing æternity UX with AE token.- Shipment of the æternity ledger wallets will commence at this time.

FURTHER TOKEN OUTLOOKDEVELOPMENT PHASE & LAUNCH OF THE ÆXPERIMENTS with AE tokens on æpp space.

The AE token on Ethereum will be used to power experimental aepps, which will give visual insights into how the æternity ecosystem will work and play together. JS-libraries and other tools will be build.

MAIN BLOCKCHAIN LAUNCH: TOKEN METAMORPHOSIS & BIRTH OF A NEW ECOSYSTEM

Phase one of the crowd-sale lasts just 3 days & there is a bonus for phase one: 100 (hundred) extra AE per 1 ETH sent in the first 24h!

The first 1000 contributors above 12 ETH will receive 1 limited edition æternity branded Ledger Nano S hardware wallet. Shipping costs will need to be covered by the contributor. Note that this perk is limited to one wallet per contributor and one per physical (delivery) address.

* Start date: Monday, April 3rd, 2017.* Start time: 13:05 GMT.* Duration: 3 days, exact 72h, by blocktime.* All will be recorded on the ETH blockchain by a multisig-escrow-contract.* Ratio: 1 ETH contribution yields 1,000 (one thousand) AE contribution receipts.* A special æternity wallet will be launched.* After these 3 days, the first phase of contribution acceptance is over.* All following transactions will be send back to the sender. No receipts are given for transactions which are included in a block before or after the official start and end.

Launch bonus for phase one: 100 (hundred) AE bonus per 1 ETH sent in the first 24h!

For security, please, do NOT send from an exchange account to the æternity contribution account! Use the æternity wallet, which is optimized to make the contribution process as easy as possible. Alternatively, you can use your ETH wallet, just make sure that you are the only one who has access to your private key.

Make sure you know (or can easily find out) the private key of the wallet you are sending your contribution from.

Æternity meets Ledger Nano S

The first 1000 contributors above 12 ETH will receive 1 limited edition æternity branded Ledger Nano S wallet. Shipping costs might be additional. Note, that this perk is limited to one wallet per contributor and one per physical address.

* Start date: Monday, April 3rd, 2017.* Start time: 13:05 GMT.* Duration: 3 days, exact 72h, by blocktime.* All will be recorded on the ETH blockchain by a multisig-escrow-contract.* Ratio: 1 ETH contribution yields 1,000 (one thousand) AE contribution receipts.* A special æternity wallet will be launched.* After these 3 days, the first phase of contribution acceptance is over.* All following transactions will be send back to the sender. No receipts are given for transactions which are included in a block before or after the official start and end.

Launch bonus for phase one: 100 (hundred) AE bonus per 1 ETH sent in the first 24h!

For security, please, do NOT send from an exchange account to the æternity contribution account! Use the æternity wallet, which is optimized to make the contribution process as easy as possible. Alternatively, you can use your ETH wallet, just make sure that you are the only one who has access to your private key.

Make sure you know (or can easily find out) the private key of the wallet you are sending your contribution from.

Æternity meets Ledger Nano S

The first 1000 contributors above 12 ETH will receive 1 limited edition æternity branded Ledger Nano S wallet. Shipping costs might be additional. Note, that this perk is limited to one wallet per contributor and one per physical address.